Future forest: Tree planting begins in Ewing Park

Thursday

Oct 18, 2012 at 12:01 AMOct 18, 2012 at 12:15 AM

ELLWOOD CITY — Armed with a can of orange spray paint, Austin Beachem roamed through Ewing Park Wednesday morning marking off the future of a forest.

Beachem, an employee in Ellwood City’s electric department, used the spray can to paint letters to let a trailing work crew from Marshall Tree Service know what trees to plant. “S,” for example, stood for “sycamore.”

The borough began the process of planting trees in the park Wednesday, with a party that included Beachem, Borough Manager Dom Viccari, Councilman George Celli, Marshall Tree Service owner Steve Marshall, electric department superintendent Randy Gatto, and tree experts Dave McQuaid and Scott Sjolander of the Penn State Cooperative Extension.

The planting was expected to run throughout the day Wednesday, Viccari said. Last spring, the borough kicked off the project by removing dead and dying trees and planting a first round of new young trees. Including the work Wednesday, the borough has planted 22 trees in the park this year.

Officials will examine the new and existing trees this spring to determine whether any additional trees will be planted.

Funding for the project came from the state, with an additional $10,000 grant from David Barensfeld, president of Ellwood Group.

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